§ Mr. SymsTo ask the Secretary c f State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he expects to introduce the transport direct booking and information system. [3456]
§ Mr. JamiesonTransport Direct is designed for people to plan their journeys and to compare routes and prices. It will cover all types of transport within the UK—air, rail, coach, bus and car.
Transport Direct will do three things:
tell the traveller what choices they have when they are planning their journey;634Wallow the traveller to book and pay for their journey at the time of making their inquiry, and receive their travel authority/ticket(s); andadvise the traveller about how their chosen travel option is performing in real-time before they set off.Transport Direct will be delivered in phases over a number of years. By 2003 we expect it to include:
real-time train operating information (that is actual rather than timetabled);real-time information on many local bus services;internet travel information, covering road journeys as well as all forms of public transport at a single point of contact;internet booking of long-distance journeys involving different forms of transport; anddevelopment of internet-based maps that allow travellers to examine public transport options both for visiting a specific venue and for general travel around an area.Traveline, the national public transport information system and a precursor to Transport Direct, is now available throughout Great Britain. It provides route and timetable information for bus, coach, tram, underground, train, ferry and metro through a national-rate call to a single telephone number—0870 608 2 608.